President's plan: Funnel GWAC, schedule fees to E-Gov Fund

By Jason Miller

Feb 02, 2004

The Bush administration is trying to make up for the $87 million shortfall in money appropriated to the E-Government Fund over the last three years by tapping fees generated by schedule and governmentwide acquisition contracts.

The fiscal 2005 budget proposal the White House released today noted that the General Services Administration would pour into the fund $40 million in surplus revenues from the fees agencies pay when buying goods and services from Federal Supply Service schedule contracts and GWACs.

Because of these funds, the administration is requesting only $5 million for the fund next year, down from a $45 million request for this year. The move is also defensive because Congress has repeatedly refused to approve the administration's E-Government Fund requests, OK'ing $3 million for this year and $5 million in 2003. The president had said he wanted to pump $100 million into the fund over the three years.

Meanwhile, for two other major IT initiatives, the proposal seeks:

$36 million for the National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Records Archive project. ERA is receiving the same amount this year. Bush had requested $22 million.

$300 million for the Human Capital Performance Fund, which agencies use to pay employees incentives for good performance. The fund is getting $500,000 this year, although the president sought $500 million.